Saturday, December 22, 2012

THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

Good Evening to All!

The
inspiration of my post tonight came from a question which I read on a
Facebook page called the Christian Life. The question was asked "Why
should we read the Old Testament?"I have known so many people who only
like to read the New Testament, because it deals with Christ, Salvation
and the early church. What they don't understand is that to have full
understanding we need to read Both Testaments. One of the comments made
on this page was, "There are a couple of places which mention Christ
in the Old Testament". I remember my Pastor talking about all kinds of
types and shadows pointing to Christ in the Old Testament, so I decided
to delve into it a little deeper.People
today want to go the easiest route possible. They only want to read
what they think is relevant to our lives today. They don't understand
that even though something may be brought up much earlier, it can still
be important on down the line. We
always need from beginning to end to get the whole story. An
analogy I think about in my personal life is when I tried to make
Christmas cookies from scratch. The first (and only) time I tried to
make them, rather than reading the WHOLE recipe first, I saw the list of
ingredients, so I just started going down the list and putting them in
the bowl. AFTER I got everything in the bowl and mixed up, THEN I saw
the "procedure", where it said to mix the DRY ingredients first, then
put the butter, (eggs, beaten, (not just thrown in), and so on. When I
took my cookies out of the oven, they were hard as a rock. If
I would have read the WHOLE RECIPE first, I would have been successful
with making delicious, chewy Christmas cookies. That is what the Old
Testament does. It sets the scene for what is to come.

When
we study the Old Testament, we find what are called types that are
fulfilled in the coming of the Messiah. In these types, there is a
correspondence between people, events or rituals of the Old Testament
and Jesus Christ. For instance, the Passover was a foreshadow or type of
the blood of the Lamb of God who would take away our sin and free us
from bondage, who's covering would spare us from judgment, and who's
mark separates and distinguishes us from the world.

Other
types are shadows, such as the Passover and the killing of a spotless
lamb. "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us," Paul told the
believers at Corinth (1 Corinthians 5:7). The stories and events of
the Old Testament were given to us for examples and for our instruction.
Paul said to the Corinthians concerning the stories of Israel's
redemption from Egypt and their wanderings in the wilderness, "Now these
things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil
things, as they also lusted.... Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of
them..... Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them
committed.....

There are many more examples of types and shadows, but even direct prophesies are brought up as in Psalms 2:7,
where He says: I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me,
"Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. These verses speak
about the preexistence of Christ. This leaves the reference verse of Acts:13:33
-- God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath
raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou
art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Other references in the New
Testament are John 8:58, which was confirmed by Christ, and Colossians 1:15-19 in which He is proclaimed by the apostles.

The birth of Christ is predicted in Isaiah 7:14;
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. The New
Testament reference is Luke 1:35, which says: And the angel
answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Of
course His birth is fulfilled in Matthew 1:18-25, and the
fullness of time, or His actual birth is brought out in Galatians 4:4
which says But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His
Son, made of a woman, made under the law,....His deity is prophesied by Isaiah 9:6;
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Consellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince
of Peace. This is referenced in the New Testament; Matt. 28:18, and Hebrews 13:20.There are references to Him all through bringing out inferences of his humanity in Genesis 3:15 which
declares: "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between they seed and her seed; it shall bruise they head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel.In Daniel, 9:24, the prophet talks about Christ's mission, which is to bring in everlasting righteousness. Before
I decided to develop an intimate relationship with Christ rather than
just calling myself a Christian and going to church sometimes, I
made the same mistake as many people do. I looked at the Bible as it
was two separate books in one. The Old Testament which was history, and
the New Testament which was about the Coming of Christ, Salvation, and
how to Live for Him. The
deeper relationship I develop with Jesus, the more I enjoy the Old
Testament because I get deeper into it and am able to understand how the
two Testaments combine to give us the WHOLE PICTURE.Good Night to All and May God Bless!

3 comments:

The Old Testament is an extremely important part of the Bible. It is not only twice as long as the New Testament, but it plays a vital role in convincing the reader that Jesus is the Christ.A muslim can argue that Allah is the true God, likewise the Buddhist can say that their faith is the right one, so can the Hindu. Even Judaism can claim that their faith in Moses is the right path. And they all have a point.The most convincing proof that the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus is through prophecy, and the O.T. of the Bible is the only book in the world that contains fulfilled prophecy. Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Zacheriah 9:9, 11:12-13, and many others. There has never been any other person whose life had been the fulfillment of so many prophecy as Jesus Christ.But the final clincher is that Jesus rose from the dead, a feat no other person has ever achieved, from Adam to the present day. His resurrection is proof that Jesus is the Christ.God bless,Frank.

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